Editing False flag (section)

==As pretexts for war==
{{Further|Pretext#Uses in warfare}}

===Russo-Swedish War===
In 1788, the head tailor at the [[Royal Swedish Opera]] received an order to sew a number of Russian military uniforms. These were then used by Swedes to stage an attack on [[Puumala]], a Swedish outpost on the Russo-Swedish border, on 27 June 1788. This caused an outrage in [[Stockholm]] and impressed the [[Riksdag of the Estates]], the Swedish national assembly, who until then had refused to agree to an offensive war against Russia. The Puumala incident allowed King [[Gustav&nbsp;III]] of Sweden, who lacked the constitutional authority to initiate unprovoked hostilities without the Estates' consent, to launch the [[Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Mattila |first=Tapabi |title=Meri maamme turvana: Suomen meripuolustuksen vaiheita Ruotsin vallan aikana |publisher=Suomi Merellä-säätiö |year=1983 |isbn=951-99487-0-8 |location=Jyväskylä |page=142 |language=fi |trans-title=The Sea As Our Country's Security: Phases of Finnish Sea Defense During Swedish Rule}}</ref>

===Franco-Prussian War===
{{Main|Franco-Prussian War}}
{{See also|Causes of the Franco-Prussian War}}
On July 13, 1870, [[Otto von Bismarck]] published the [[Ems Dispatch]], an internal message from King [[William I, German Emperor|Wilhelm I]] to Bismarck regarding certain demands made by the French ambassador. In the version purposefully released to the public, Bismarck instead made it sound like the King had gravely disrespected the ambassador – a ploy to trick Emperor [[Napoleon III]] into declaring war on the [[North German Confederation]], with the end goal of unifying the northern and southern German states. This ploy would be successful, as Napoleon III would declare war six days later; and six months later, the Confederation would win and [[German Empire|unify the German states]].

===Second Sino-Japanese War===
{{Main|Mukden incident}}
[[File:193109 mukden incident railway sabotage.jpg|thumbnail|Japanese experts inspect the scene of the "railway sabotage" on the [[South Manchurian Railway]].]]
In September 1931, [[Seishirō Itagaki]] and other [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] mid- to junior-grade officers, without the knowledge of the Tokyo government, fabricated a pretext for invading [[Manchuria]] by blowing up a section of railway. Though the explosion was too weak to disrupt operations on the rail line, the Japanese nevertheless used the [[Mukden incident]] to seize Manchuria and create a [[puppet government]] in the form of the nominally independent state of [[Manchukuo]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Weland |first=James |title=Misguided Intelligence: Japanese Military Intelligence Officers in the Manchurian Incident, September 1931 |date=1994 |journal=[[The Journal of Military History]] |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=445–460 |jstor=2944134 |doi=10.2307/2944134}}</ref>

===World War II===

====Gleiwitz incident====
{{Main|Gleiwitz incident}}
[[File:Alfred Naujocks.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Alfred Naujocks]]]]
The [[Gleiwitz incident]] in 1939 involved [[Reinhard Heydrich]] fabricating evidence of a [[Second Polish Republic|Polish]] attack against [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] to mobilize German public opinion for war and to justify the [[invasion of Poland (1939)|war against Poland]]. [[Alfred Naujocks]] was a key organiser of the operation under orders from Heydrich. It led to the deaths of [[Nazi concentration camp]] victims who were dressed as German soldiers and then shot by the [[Gestapo]] to make it seem that they had been shot by Polish soldiers. This, along with other false flag operations in [[Operation Himmler]], would be used to mobilize support from the German population for the start of [[European Theatre of World War II|World War&nbsp;II in Europe]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lightbody |first=Bradley |title=The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-415-22405-5 |location=Abingdon-on-Thames |pages=39}}</ref>

The operation failed to convince international public opinion of the German claims, and both Britain and France{{snd}}Poland's allies{{snd}}declared war two days after Germany invaded Poland.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zaloga |first=Steve |title=Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg |publisher=[[Praeger Publishers]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0275982782 |edition=illustrated |location=Westport |pages=39 |orig-date=originally published in 2002 by Osprey Publishing}}</ref>

====Winter War====
On 26 November 1939, the Soviet army [[shelling of Mainila|shelled Mainila]], a Russian village near the Finnish border. Soviet authorities blamed [[Finland]] for the attack and used the incident as a pretext to invade Finland, starting the [[Winter War]], four days later.<ref name="talvisodanpikkujattilainen-turtola13">{{cite book |last=Turtola |first=Martti |title=Talvisodan pikkujättiläinen |publisher=[[Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö]] |year=1999 |editor1-last=Leskinen |editor1-first=Jari |pages=44–45 |trans-title=The Little Giant of the Winter War |chapter=Kansainvälinen kehitys Euroopassa ja Suomessa 1930-luvulla |editor2-last=Juutilainen |editor2-first=Antti}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Murphy |first=David |title=The Finnish-Soviet Winter War 1939-40 Stalin's Hollow Victory. |date=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |others=Johnny Shumate |isbn=978-1-4728-4394-4 |location=London |pages=9 |oclc=1261364794 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1261364794}}</ref>

===Cuban Revolution===

====Operation Northwoods====
{{Main|Operation Northwoods}}
[[File:NorthwoodsMemorandum.jpg|thumb|upright|Operation Northwoods memorandum (13 March 1962).<ref name=":1"/>]]
[[Operation Northwoods]], a 1962 plot proposed but never executed by the [[U.S. Department of Defense]] for a war with [[Cuba]], involved scenarios such as fabricating the hijacking or shooting down of passenger and military planes, sinking a U.S. ship in the vicinity of Cuba, burning crops, sinking a boat filled with Cuban refugees, attacks by alleged Cuban infiltrators inside the United States, and harassment of U.S. aircraft and shipping, and the destruction of aerial drones by aircraft disguised as Cuban MiGs.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=Pentagon Proposes Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962 |date=30 April 2001 |website=[[National Security Archive]] |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/ |access-date=14 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501181454/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/ |archive-date=1 May 2024}}</ref> These actions would be blamed on Cuba, and would be a pretext for an invasion of Cuba and the overthrow of [[Fidel Castro]]'s communist government. It was authorised by the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], but then rejected by President [[John F. Kennedy]]. The surprise discovery of the documents relating to Operation Northwoods was a result of the comprehensive search for records related to the [[assassination of President John F. Kennedy]] by the [[Assassination Records Review Board]] in the mid-1990s.<ref>{{cite book |last=P. Horne |first=Douglas |title=Inside the Assassination Records Review Board: The U.S. Government's Final Attempt to Reconcile the Conflicting Medical Evidence in the Assassination of JFK |publisher=self-published |year=2009 |isbn=978-0984314447 |url=https://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Inside_the_ARRB |access-date=30 October 2018}}</ref> Information about Operation Northwoods was later publicized by [[James Bamford]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Bamford |first=James |title=Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency |title-link=Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency |publisher=Anchor Books |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-385-49907-1 |pages=82–91 |chapter-url=}}</ref>

===Russian invasion of Ukraine===
In January and February 2022, U.S. officials warned that Russian operatives were planning a false flag operation in Ukraine in order to justify a military intervention.<ref>{{cite web |last=Walton |first=Calder |title=False-Flag Invasions Are a Russian Specialty |date=4 February 2022 |language=en-US |website=Foreign Policy |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/04/false-flag-invasions-are-a-russian-specialty/ |access-date=2022-03-14}}</ref> In the days leading up to the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February]], the Russian government intensified its [[Russian disinformation|disinformation campaign]], with Russian state media promoting false flags on a nearly hourly basis purporting to show Ukrainian forces attacking Russia, in a bid to justify an invasion of Ukraine.<ref name="ViceDisinfo">{{cite web |last=Gilbert |first=David |title=Russia's 'Idiotic' Disinformation Campaign Could Still Lead to War in Ukraine |date=21 February 2022 |publisher=[[Vice Media]] |website=[[Vice News]] |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/russia-disinformation-campaign-bombing-ukraine/ |access-date=22 February 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221194550/https://www.vice.com/en/article/88gdj3/russia-disinformation-campaign-bombing-ukraine |archive-date=21 February 2022}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Four Russian false flags that are comically easy to debunk |date=21 February 2022 |website=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/21/five-russian-false-flags-comically-easy-debunk/ |access-date=22 February 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222050443/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/21/five-russian-false-flags-comically-easy-debunk/ |archive-date=22 February 2022}}</ref> Many of the disinformation videos were poor and amateur in quality, with mismatching [[metadata]] showing incorrect dates,<ref name=":0"/> and evidence from [[Bellingcat]] researchers and other independent journalists showed that the claimed attacks, explosions, and evacuations in [[Donbas]] were staged by Russia.<ref name="ViceDisinfo"/><ref name=":0"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Russia says it prevented border breach from Ukraine, Kyiv calls it fake news |date=21 February 2022 |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-prevented-border-breach-ukraine-kyiv-calls-it-fake-news-2022-02-21/ |access-date=21 February 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221131855/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-prevented-border-breach-ukraine-kyiv-calls-it-fake-news-2022-02-21/ |archive-date=21 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Bellingcat Investigation Team |title=Documenting and Debunking Dubious Footage from Ukraine's Frontlines |date=23 February 2022 |work=[[Bellingcat]] |url=https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/02/23/documenting-and-debunking-dubious-footage-from-ukraines-frontlines/ |access-date=24 February 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223204058/https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/02/23/documenting-and-debunking-dubious-footage-from-ukraines-frontlines/ |archive-date=23 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title='Dumb and lazy': the flawed films of Ukrainian 'attacks' made by Russia's 'fake factory' |date=21 February 2022 |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/21/dumb-and-lazy-the-flawed-films-of-ukrainian-attacks-made-by-russias-fake-factory |access-date=22 February 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221235946/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/21/dumb-and-lazy-the-flawed-films-of-ukrainian-attacks-made-by-russias-fake-factory |archive-date=21 February 2022}}</ref>